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Marty Schmidt set his sights high in wanting him and his son to become the first father-son team to summit one of the most unforgiving mountains in the world.

Instead, the former Christchurch resident and his son, Denali, have been killed by an avalanche on 8611-metre-tall K2 - the highest point in the Karakoram Range spanning Pakistan, India and China. It is the second highest peak in the world.

Sequoia Di Angelo confirmed the deaths of her father and brother in a post on Twitter today: "It is with great sorrow that I confirm the tragic death of my brother and father, Denali and Marty Schmidt. May their spirits rest at k2.RIP"

Schmidt had recently worked as an Everest guide for Canada-based firm Peak Freaks, carrying out two tours to the world's highest peak.

Co-owner Tim Rippel, who had known Schmidt for about 20 years, said the climber had a good sense of humour, but was "serious about what he does".

Schmidt owned a house in Christchurch and had land in the North Island, but often travelled overseas for work.

"He was just a nice friendly guy. His heart was always there. He was just one of those loveable kind of guys, people just loved him the first time they met him," Rippel said.

"He's going to be missed. He's touched a lot of people's personal dreams, helped them through some big times."

The New Zealand mountaineering community is today in mourning.

Sam Newton, from the New Zealand Alpine Club, said he understood Schmidt, 53, and Denali, 25, had been missing for two days.

Hussain said other climbers had been descending the mountain because of the risk of avalanche, but the Schmidts had kept climbing.

"I think they overestimated themselves. They should have also descended back to the safety of base camp."

British mountaineer Adrian Hayes, who was climbing with Schmidt's expedition, said all of Camp Three had been wiped out by an avalanche.

"The deaths of a father and son is a tragedy in itself but compounded even further by the fact that Marty and Denali . . . . were very well known, highly experienced and extremely strong mountaineers - the last people many would expect to be killed on a mountain," Hayes said.

He said there was a thin line between life and death in mountaineering.

"The poignancy of the tragedy is not lost in that, had the rest of us not turned back that day - including Marty and Denali's Australian team mate Chris Warner - we also all would have been sleeping at Camp 3 when the avalanche struck."

Six teams backed down the mountain "alive and well".

Aspiring Guides director Whitney Thurlow, who had worked with Schmidt for more than 10 years, was still hopeful the pair would be found.